Soft plastic lizards can be very effective for smallmouth bass, but at times, the other popular smallmouth bass baits will out fish these lizards big time. The spawning time is the most popular time of year to fish these lizards as smallmouth bass are very protective over their beds and they do not like lizards coming anywhere near their bedding areas.
Once the spawn is over, most anglers won’t use these soft plastic lizards for smallmouth bass, but when an aggressive bite is happening, a well-placed soft plastic lizard can help put some quality smallmouth bass in the boat.
What Sizes are Best for Smallmouth Bass Fishing?
Most anglers use lizards in the 4 to 5 inch range when fishing for smallmouth bass. The 6 inch lizards work great for targeting bigger smallmouth bass, but you usually get a lot less bites with the bigger lizards.
How to Rig Soft Plastic Lizards
The smaller lizards work great on a variety of different jigheads. As you go up in size, anglers like to use the Carolina rig, Texas rig and weightless Texas rig with these soft plastic lizards.
Best Techniques
Hop Them Along the Bottom
Smallmouth bass are often found swimming just above the rocky bottoms as they search for crayfish and other food to eat. Hop these lizard baits along the bottom with some pauses mixed in and you’ll catch some smallmouth bass.
Fish Them Slowly Through the Water Column
A lighter jighead or split shot rig works great to fish a soft plastic lizard slowly through the water column. When smallmouth bass are suspended up off the bottom, you can catch quite a few of them by fishing a lizard slowly through the water column.
Drag Them Along the Bottom
You can also have good success by just slowly dragging these baits along the bottom.
